


Through Gritted Teeth

by Exhausted_Sloth



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Blood, Clint Barton Needs a Hug, Gen, Hurt Clint Barton, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Major Character Injury, Pain, Whump, Worried Bruce Banner, Worried Thor (Marvel), Worried Tony Stark, natasha shows up for like three seconds, steve shows up for like five seconds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:15:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24584428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exhausted_Sloth/pseuds/Exhausted_Sloth
Summary: Clint gets hurt during a battle. The team brings him back to the Quinjet and takes care of him.Rated T for blood and injury.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Clint Barton, Clint Barton & Thor, Clint Barton & Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 62





	Through Gritted Teeth

**Author's Note:**

> The characters don't belong to me! Also, I make no guarantees that this fic is medically accurate. Please don't use this fic for any kind of medical advice. (I doubt anybody would, but just in case.)

Clint blinked, trying to take in his surroundings. He heard voices through his earpiece, but they were too jumbled for him to understand. Letting out a sigh, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Looking around, the battle they had been fighting seemed to have ended. There weren’t any more of the blade wielding aliens running around attacking people, and he didn’t hear anything that would suggest further fighting.

Carefully, Clint tried to stand. However, he stopped a moment later with a small cry when pain tore through his leg. A flurry of voices came through his earpiece, but he ignored them in favor of examining his leg. There was blood running down it, which mostly seemed to be coming from his thigh. He let out a quiet curse. Quickly, he searched for something to use to stanch the flow of blood. When he didn’t find anything, he let out another quiet curse, then used his hands to apply pressure to the gash in his leg.

“Legolas, what’s going on?” Tony demanded, his voice cutting through the other noise coming through the earpiece. “Can you hear us? Respond, Barton!”

Through gritted teeth, Clint replied, “I can hear you, Stark.”

“Are you down?” Tony asked briskly.

Clint let out a tired sigh. “Yes.”

“Where are you, and how bad is it?”

Clint glanced around again, then looked back at his leg. There was far too much blood for this to be something he could deal with on his own. “I’m about three blocks south from where they first appeared.” Glancing down at his leg again, he added, “It’s bad.”

“Details, Legolas.”

“I’ve lost a lot of blood.” Making a face, he let his head fall forward for a moment. “I’m getting dizzy.”

It was Tony’s turn to let out a curse. “Banner didn’t Hulk out this time, so he’s been standing by. Thor will come get you. I’m going to help Banner set things up in the Quinjet.”

The conversation in the earpiece stopped being addressed at Clint, so he stopped listening. Scanning the sky, he pressed down harder on his leg.

What seemed like an eternity later, though it had probably only been a few minutes at most, Thor flew into view. Clint cleared his throat, then yelled, “Thor!”

The god of thunder paused in mid-air, scanning the ground. As soon as he spotted Clint, he dived towards him, landing gently a few feet away.

“That’s a lot of blood, Barton.” Thor gave him a concerned look. He knelt.

Clint let out a small, pained laugh. “I noticed.”

Thor produced supplies from a pouch on his belt, and gently pulled Clint’s hands away from the wound. He pressed a thick linen pad against it, and wound bandages around it tightly to hold it in place. Clint gritted his teeth silently and closed his eyes as Thor worked.

Once Thor tied off the temporary bandage, he produced another cloth from his belt pouch. He squeezed Clint’s shoulder as he offered it to him.

“Clean the worst of the blood off your hands, then we will go and meet Stark and Banner.”

Clint obeyed wordlessly, wiping the worst of the blood off onto the cloth. Once he was done, Thor took the cloth and tuck it into a different pouch.

“Let’s go, Barton.” Thor gently slid one arm under Clint, carefully hauling him to his feet. As soon as Clint reached standing, he began to sway. Thor wrapped an arm around his waist, lifting him gently as he took off, flying north towards the spot they had landed the Quinjet. Clint groaned as they lifted off, hating being carried, even though he knew he really wouldn’t be able to walk there.

It only took a minute to reach the Quinjet. Bruce and Tony were waiting when Thor landed. On the way down, Clint noticed that Natasha and Steve weren’t there, at least not yet. As Thor’s feet touched the ground, he put away his hammer and readjusted his grip on Clint, carrying him up the ramp bridal style.

Clint made a face at Thor. “I could have walked.”

Thor gave him an unimpressed look as they entered the artificial lighting of the Quinjet. Gently, he settled Clint onto the medical bed Bruce had prepared.

Clint tried to stay silent as Thor lowered him down, but he let out a pained hiss as his leg got jostled in the process. Thor apologized quietly, then moved back give Bruce the space he needed. Tony hovered by the head of the bed, and gently adjusted Clint’s head on the small pillow, trying to make him as comfortable as possible.

“Just relax, Clint,” Bruce said gently, looking at the makeshift bandage Thor had tied around his leg. The blood had already soaked through the cloth. Bruce made a concerned face. Carefully, he removed the bloody bandage and dropped it into a bin beside the bed. He breathed an internal sigh of relief when he saw that while the bleeding was heavy, there wasn’t any spurting that would have indicated that a served artery.

Bruce grabbed the antiseptic from the open medical kit sitting on a nearby surface. He soaked a clean cloth in it, then placed a gentle hand on Clint’s shoulder. Clint met his eyes.

“I’m going to disinfect the wound. This’ll hurt,” Bruce warned.

Clint nodded, clenching his jaw. Bruce gently but efficiently began to clean the wound. Although Clint stiffened at the first touch of the antiseptic soaked cloth, he stayed still and silent, letting Bruce work. Tony reached down and squeezed Clint’s shoulder, grounding him. Clint let his head lean against Tony’s wrist, squeezing his eyes shut. Thor stood facing the ramp, keeping watch for anything or anyone who could be potentially hostile.

When Bruce finished disinfecting Clint’s wound. As soon as he removed the antiseptic soaked cloth for the last time, he pressed a clean linen pad against Clint’s leg.

“Tony?” Bruce glanced up at him. “Can you come put pressure on this, please?”

Tony nodded, giving Clint’s should another tight squeeze before walking around to the side of the bed to press on the cloth. Once Bruce was sure Tony was putting enough pressure on it, he moved to speak to Clint.

“I need to stitch it closed,” Bruce told him. “Otherwise, you’ll probably bleed out before we get you to a real medical facility.”

Clint nodded. “Ok,” he rasped, taking a deep, shaky breath.

At his response, Bruce went to grab the needle and thread from the medical kit. As Bruce threaded the needle, Tony searched Clint’s face. His eyes were scrunched closed, and his paler-than-usual face was creased with pain.

“You’re not planning on passing out on us, are you, Katniss?” Tony joked, his voice slightly strained. Clint let out a sharp little laugh.

“I’m trying not to. Can’t make any promises, though.”

Tony gave him a strained smile, but anything he might have been planning to say got cut off by Bruce addressing Clint.

“I’m going to stitch it closed now, Clint. I’m sorry, but this kit doesn’t have any anesthetic.” Frowning, he added, “I won’t be able to give you anything to help with the pain.”

Clint nodded, visibly steeling himself.

“Alright. Go ahead.”

Bruce gently pulled Tony’s hands away from the linen pad, and threw it in the bin with the other bloody cloths. Before much more blood could well up, Bruce began to stitch closed the wound. Clint let out a hiss, clenching his jaw and balling his hands into fists.

Feeling helpless, Tony pried one of Clint’s hands open enough to slide his hand in and squeeze his hand tightly. Clint gripped it so tightly that Tony had to hold back a gasp of pain. It seemed to be helping Clint stay grounded, so Tony didn’t want him to feel guilty and let go.

Bruce stitched Clint’s leg closed as quickly and carefully as he could. Once he took the last stitch, he tied off the thread and cut it. Throwing the needle in the container that came with the kit, Bruce grabbed another pad and pressed it against the now stitched wound with one hand. With the other, he wrapped a bandage around Clint’s leg to hold the pad firmly in place. As soon as he tied off the bandage, he cleaned up the kit aside from the supplies he would need to place an IV.

Tony squeezed Clint’s hand.

“Bruce is done, Legolas. You still awake?”

Clint opened his eyes slowly. “I’m awake,” he said shakily. “I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to stay that way, though.”

Bruce gave him an encouraging smile. “I’m just going to place an IV, then you can rest, ok?”

When Clint nodded, Bruce got to work on the IV.

As Bruce finished placing the IV, they heard footsteps coming from the ramp. Bruce glanced over his shoulder. Clint, unable to see who was walking up the ramp from his position lying on the bed, pushed himself into a sitting position. The world spun. Tony grabbed his shoulders, steadying him as he began to tip.

“Take it easy, Barton. You’ve lost a lot of blood,” Tony soothed, lowering him back down. “It’s just Cap and Romanoff.”

Clint didn’t bother trying to resist Tony’s manhandling, knowing he was too drained to be able to anyway.

“How is he?” he heard Steve say quietly from near the ramp. Clint tuned out the rest of the conversation, closing his eyes again. Tony pulled a blanket over him, leaving his bandaged leg exposed.

“We need to decide where to take him.” he heard Bruce murmur to Tony.

“No hospitals.” Clint rasped, eyes still closed.

Bruce started to argue, but Tony cut him off.

“We have a fully equipped medbay back at the tower, would that be good enough?”

Bruce nodded, sighing. “That’ll do.”

Clint heard Tony walk away, heading towards the front of the Quinjet. A few moments later, he heard the ramp closing.

As the Quinjet took off, Clint relaxed. The blood loss had left him exhausted. As he drifted off to sleep, he smiled softly, knowing he was safe surrounded by his team.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I've ever tried to write any of these characters, so sorry if anyone's OOC. If anyone wants another chapter, let me know, because I'm thinking about writing one!


End file.
